Privileging at microhospitals

Featuring a handful of inpatient beds and a narrow selection of community-tailored services, microhospitals are seeking to revolutionize care delivery in cities across the country. These pint-sized purveyors of targeted interventions have a two-fold appeal: they present healthcare institutions with a low-risk vehicle for expanding or redefining their market presence and tout faster, more accessible care for patients in hubs where sluggish traffic, overcrowding, and limited building options can put traditional hospital services out of comfortable reach.

Whereas microhospitals generally “have their act together from the credentialing side of things,” privileging practitioners for work in the setting can prove more challenging, says Patrick Horine, MHA, CEO of hospital accreditor DNV GL’s Business Assurance and Healthcare Accreditation Services. That’s because organizations must award privileges at the individual site level, regardless of whether they use an in-house or commercial CVO.

“You’re still looking to see whether they’ve got privileges and approvals of each individual hospital,” says Horine. “Sometimes you see some things missing there,” such as integration of sufficient performance data into the reappointment process.

When developing new privileging forms or adapting existing templates for the microhospital environment, make sure that outlined privileges only cover the services offered at the location. This is particularly important for practitioners who are seeking work in a system-based microhospital but who don’t currently have privileges at another member location.

“Take a look at what’s in the core, and determine whether or not these procedures are going to be performed at this facility,” Kathy Matzka, CPMSM, CPCS, FMSP, an independent medical staff consultant in Lebanon, Illinois. The form should not list “things that go above and beyond what kind of services are going to be provided.”

Source: News & Analysis